Now that the dust has settled after the arrival of the Radeon X800 XT and GeForce 6800 Ultra, it's time to begin the rollout of follow-up parts. These usually take the form of $200 price/performance cards based on cut-down versions of the high-end GPUs and mobile GPUs for laptops that also are reduced versions of their desktop brethren. There's often a considerable lag between the initial roll-out of desktop GPUs and the mobile follow-ns, but this time around, ATI has gotten the jump on nVidia by debuting its Mobility Radeon 9800, the first eight-pipe mobile GPU to hit the market.

This new mobile GPU moves mobile gaming forward by a sizeable leap, but also won't likely adorn many low-end or light laptops. Instead, look for it in the big, heavy-chassis gaming monsters from Dell, Alienware, and VoodooPC. The Mobility Radeon 9800 also brings a nice surprise along with it, but for that, and the full story on the 9800's performance, you're going to have to turn the page.